Skip to content Skip to footer

STATION 2: AT THE KOLK (POND)

Gerd Ludwig photographs …

… Beuys from the back. With him we look over the little pond (“Kolk”) typical in the duffle to the shadowy rows of trees in the far distance. 

Peter Sager writes:

Again and again, for centuries the Rhine has lost its way here; in dark ponds the old man stands, ponders and gets his feet wet. (…) 

Landscape with the fast breeder Kalkar, plutonium between the cows. Now and then windmills, with old wooden shingles and new aluminum blades. “In fifty years you’ll only see windmills,” says Beuys, “decentralized energy is on the rise, nuclear power plants aren’t catching on.” (TIME Magazine 1978)

BEUYS MAKES

Inspired by the ideas of German Romanticism, the art professor from Kleve develops his theory of the social sculpture and, based on this idea, becomes involved in the founding of various parties, including the Green Party, whose name, The Greens, as well as its symbol, the Sunflower, are attributed to him.

And today:

What remains is the little pond right before your eyes in a typical Lower Rhine landscape with some changes in the distance.  

 Cycle route to the next station:  

– continue on the Drusus dike

– right into Grindweide

– in the right-hand bend to J.-Sebus-Str. 

– left onto the cycle path to the top of the dike

– right to the benches

Station 3: On the dike

Art and Climate Change © 2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.